"
"Some other time? Then I'm to stay!"
"In Manzanita?"
"Manzanita? No. Here."
"In this station? Alone? But why--"
"Because I'm Io Welland and I want to, and I always get what I want,"
she retorted calmly and superbly.
"Welland," he repeated. "Miss I.O. Welland. And the address is New York,
isn't it?"
Her hands grew tense across her knee, and deep in her shadowed eyes
there was a flash. But her voice suggested not only appeal, but almost a
hint of caress as she said:
"Are you going to betray a guest? I've always heard that Western
hospitality--"
"You're not my guest. You're the company's."
"And you won't take me for yours?"
"Be reasonable, Miss Welland."
"I suppose it's a question of the conventionalities," she mocked.
"I don't know or care anything about the conventionalities--"
"Nor I," she interrupted. "Out here."
"--but my guess would be that they apply only to people who live in the
same world. We don't, you and I."
"That's rather shrewd of you," she observed.
"It isn't an easy matter to talk about to a young girl, you know."
"Oh, yes, it is," she returned with composure. "Just take it for granted
that I know about all there is to be known and am not afraid of it. I'm
not afraid of anything, I think, except of--of having to go back just
now.
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